Affective Barriers to Accessing Professionalized Intimate Partner Violence Services Among LGBTQ People in Australia

LGBTQ victim-survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) encounter numerous obstacles to accessing professionalized support, including internal factors that engender reluctance to engage in professionalized services. This gap in knowledge constitutes a limiting factor to the uptake of these services, even when significant effort has been made to accommodate these individuals. Semi-structured life history interviews were conducted with (<i>N</i> = 30) LGBTQ victim-survivors aged 19-79 years with recent (<2 years) and/or ongoing IPV experiences. These factors functionally curtailed access to appropriate support, even when available. The implementation of inclusive services must be attentive to and address affective barriers encountered by LGBTQ victim-survivors.